In a move to revive traditional policing and to prevent overcrowding in police stations during the pandemic, the North Zone police asked all police stations to hold petition enquiries in the petitioners’ homes or villages.
A total of 7,800 petitions were received in the north zone over the last fortnight and out of this 3,900 were disposed of after investigations on the doorsteps of the complainants. Vellore had the highest number of petitions.
There are a total of 299 police stations in North Zone police limits, including Ranipet, Tirupattur, Vellore, Tiruvannamalai, Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu, Cuddalore, Kallakurichi and Villupuram. In order to ensure petitions were disposed of at the earliest, J.K. Tripathy, DGP, and Rajesh Das, ADGP, Law and Order, introduced the system for doorstep enquiries from October 1.
In Vellore, a total of 1,830 petitions were received within the last fortnight and out of this 930 were attended to on the doorsteps of the complainant and were disposed of. In Tirupattur, around 200 petitions were received and 150 were disposed of. The number was 320 and 165 in Ranipet.
Earlier, those involved in the case will be summoned to the station for enquiry.
Now, a head constable will go to the village of the complainant for preliminary investigation and then the inspector or sub-inspector will follow suit for questioning.
“The biggest advantage in this system is that cases are disposed of quickly as petitioners do not have to travel to the station many times. Besides, middle men who often cause problems are eliminated as the personnel directly visit the petitioners. Allegations about harassment by the police will also not arise, and the entire process will be transparent,” a senior police officer said.
This also prevents overcrowding in the station during the pandemic, he added.
